Per the governments very own inflation (I. E., dollar devaluation) calculator, it takes $9.69 today to purchase what you could buy with a single dollar in 1950. But it's probably somewhat worse than that, as the government doesn't track inflation very honestly (mainly because Social Security is indexed to it). The average price of a new car in 1950 was $1,510. Today it is around $32,000. By the car measure the dollar has lost a bit more than 95% of its value since 1950. With a 95% decline, a $200,000 home today would have sold for $10,000 in 1950, and that seems about right.